12/20/13
Time to put the new power plant + transmission in place! With the help of my trusty 6000 lb Rugar crane I was able to wrestle the engine/tranny combo into the Deuce engine bay. The engine does look a little rough around the edges because the donor vehicle spent time in New York and ended up a totalled heap in Biloxi, Missisippi after a high school basket ball game went awry.

With help from BlackRockFab and a local fabricator I was able to get custom engine/bellhousing mounts as well as relocated radiator mounts to make it all work. I picked a reference point and stuck with it no matter how painful it was. My choice was to keep the factory Deuce transfer case in the factory spot and work my way forward with the Cummins engine + Allison AT545 transmission.
This pushed the entire engine/tranny combo forward. I used the factory Deuce middle driveshaft and replaced the Allison AT545 output flange with a flat faced companion flange. The Freightliner radiator + intercooler combo is engineered for a 30,000 lb GVWR. That makes it really massive! I recall the fan being 23" in diameter. A mock-up of the radiator + intercooler combo showed an interference
on each side with the headlight housings. I removed the 3" fan hub spacer in order to push the radiator + intercooler combo back towards the engine. I need to make all the room I can for a 24v winch behind the bumper. The airpack will soon be gone in favor of a Hydroboost split brake system setup. The Allison AT545 pan is 5.3" deep so the BlackRockFab lift kit cross brace wouldnt' work. It will need to
be modified. Many mock-ups, cusswords and thrown tools and sketches were sent off to BlackRockFab for fabrication. The Allison AT545 doesn't use a cross brace. Instead it has a bellhousing mount on each side. This eliminates the need for an engine mount on each side. The Freightliner chassis engineers put a large front engine mount on the Cummins 6BT so
I will have to get a new cross brace for the front.